Calado Leads Hanson With Nine Hours to Go

Photo: MPS Agency

James Calado led Phil Hanson in a Ferrari 499P 1-2 with nine hours to go in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Calado, in the No. 51 factory AF Corse Ferrari, passed the satellite No. 83 entry of Hanson shortly after the resumption of racing from a Full Course Yellow for the beached No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R of Rahel Frey.

The No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi ran third following a pit stop for the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, who was off-sequence.

It came after Estre’s co-driver Matt Campbell elected to stay out during a lengthy Slow Zone in the 14th hour when the No. 18 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 Gibson of Andre Lotterer lost his right-rear wheel and stopped at the end of Mulsanne.

Lotterer’s Genesis Magma Racing entry was running inside the top-three in LMP2 at the time, prior to the car’s retirement.

The No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen ran fourth, with Estre more than 1 minute and 20 seconds behind in fifth, on the alternative strategy.

LMP2 was led by the No. 48 VDS Panis Racing Oreca of Esteban Masson, ahead of Nick Yelloy’s No. 43 Inter Europol Competition entry.

PJ Hyett maintained the top spot in LMP2 Pro-Am, although now fifth on the road, after Hyett was forced to serve a drive-through penalty for a Slow Zone infringement.

Richard Lietz put the No. 92 Manthey Porsche out front in LMGT3, ahead of the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francois Heriau and Tom Van Rompuy’s No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Iron Dames driver Frey, who was spun by the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 of Clemens Schmid, returned to action after the FCY intervention but later briefly stopped on track, adding a further delay.

Schmid was served with a drive-through penalty for the incident.

The No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, which hit a rabbit earlier in the race, has since been retired with residual damage from the earlier incident.

Another retirement was the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari due to a torque sensor failure.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John